# Help me imbed an .avi file into my website! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734 "2005-03-22T17:13:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/1 "2005-03-22T17:13:45Z")
Please? Basically, I have a plainish, but functional website. I have a nifty .avi file that I would like to imbed - basically, a person opens the page and the .avi starts playing. I recognize that I may need to convert the .avi to a .gif or something - if this is the case, suggestions on how to do that would be appreciated as well. I’m using the good old standard, Front Page to develop this beastie. So - does anyone have any ideas? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/2 "2005-03-22T17:21:47Z")
You can leave it as an .AVI file. Use the \ tag to place it. The syntax is \. More parameters listed [here](http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/embed_tag.html). ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/3 "2005-03-22T18:08:39Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > You can leave it as an .AVI file. Use the \ tag to place it. The syntax is \. More parameters listed [here](http://wp.netscape.com/assist/net_sites/embed_tag.html). \ is a Netscape proprietary element. IE won’t touch it. You need an \ element with the proper attributes and possibly some \ elements within it. Then you place your \ tags in the \ as well. IE will ignore the embed, and Netscape will ignore the \, so it all works. Look at any Flash site’s code to see how it’s done. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/4 "2005-03-22T18:16:03Z")
You can also put it in as a link - click me to hear music/etc. e.g.: \click me to hear mucis/etc.\ Otherwise, I put a pox on all sites that automatically assault visitors with noise. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/5 "2005-03-22T18:23:08Z")
Holy Crap! It worked. Feel free to check it out here: [http://www.ucalgary.ca/smrg/rodger.htm](http://www.ucalgary.ca/smrg/rodger.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/6 "2005-03-22T18:34:48Z")
Ugh. That’s truly awful, sorry. It takes for-freaking-ever to load up (dialup 56k). I’d go with **gotpasswords** ’ suggestion and make a link to click to show the movie, instead of loading it automatically. You can take a representative frame from the AVI, convert it to GIF, and use that image as a link to the full AVI file. Otherwise, my PC goes nuts starting Windows Media Player, loading CODECs and downloading the AVI. I, too, detest sites which load up large amounts of unnecessary media when all I want to do is read the content. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/7 "2005-03-22T18:39:01Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > Ugh. That’s truly awful, sorry. It takes for-freaking-ever to load up (dialup 56k). I’d go with **gotpasswords** ’ suggestion and make a link to click to show the movie, instead of loading it automatically. You can take a representative frame from the AVI, convert it to GIF, and use that image as a link to the full AVI file. Otherwise, my PC goes nuts starting Windows Media Player, loading CODECs and downloading the AVI. I, too, detest sites which load up large amounts of unnecessary media when all I want to do is read the content. Bah! It’s probably going to stay as is, for now. Generally people checking it out will be at Universities, and hopefully will have a faster connection - around these parts it takes mere moments for it to load… ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/8 "2005-03-22T18:40:18Z")
_\ is a Netscape proprietary element. IE won’t touch it._ Wanna bet? I’ve never had a problem with IE reading embed tags and I just created a page for testing purposes with IE 6 and it played like a champ. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/9 "2005-03-22T21:52:03Z")
> [@daffyduck](#): > > _\ is a Netscape proprietary element. IE won’t touch it._ > > Wanna bet? > > I’ve never had a problem with IE reading embed tags and I just created a page for testing purposes with IE 6 and it played like a champ. Veddy Eenteresting, and I find by running it throught the test suites that IE’s support of the standard \ element is rather sporadic. ---
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-imbed-an-avi-file-into-my-website/295734/10 "2005-03-22T21:55:34Z")
Here’s [Microsoft’s take](http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306790) on the subject